Did Thanksgiving sneak up on you? It sure did come fast for me. I had another trip earlier in November, and I focused on that. When I got home, suddenly Thanksgiving was six days away.
And I’ll hit the road again, this time for a long drive between Colorado and Illinois, where various fragments of four generations of my extended family will gather.
At this time of year I hear people begin to say, “After the holidays …” From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, so many of us are expecting a six-week blur, after which we will emerge and resume real life. So we push back whatever we can. Deadlines. Projects. Meetings. Publishing, in particular, tends to grind to a halt until “after the holidays.”
Rather than thinking “After the holidays …” perhaps we should be thinking “During the holidays …” My mother recently said to me, “This is what it is today. I can’t promise what it will be tomorrow.”
How true.
What do you want from this holiday season? Where will you find your center? Your joy?
Stay in the moments of your life even during these weeks at the end of the year. We don’t have to let these weeks be overwhelming. We can choose balance. Less can be more. We can choose to immerse ourselves in the wonder of now.
Whatever your traditions, whether you gather with 40 family members or 3 friends, choose to be present in each moment.
